


Voices of the Planet

by sanctum_c



Category: Final Fantasy VII (Video Game 1997)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-02
Updated: 2020-05-02
Packaged: 2021-03-01 20:01:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,064
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23972668
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sanctum_c/pseuds/sanctum_c
Summary: The Planet expects something of her; Aeris doesn't feel able to not comply.
Relationships: Aerith Gainsborough/Cloud Strife
Comments: 14
Kudos: 34





	Voices of the Planet

**Author's Note:**

> The call to Aeris in the middle of the night is inspired by _Before Crisis_ and Aerith's major appearance in that game. As far as I know it never dealt with the specifics of why, how or where the wind was calling her, but Raaj noted years back the timing was close to the Nibelheim incident - and the connection is intriguing.

The whispering intensified each step of the way. The Planet was nervous – but not outside the norms Aeris experienced. Her nerves, the strange prickling feeling sweeping along her spine and left her almost dizzy all too familiar. They came in waves, peaks and troughs breaking across her unpredictably.

She long since learned how to hide her reactions to them. To not provoke awkward questions from Mom, to not have Tseng seize upon them as proof of the points he so desperately wanted her to admit.

Leaving Midgar caused an up-tick in her sense of unease; not so much an intensifying as a clarifying sensation. The Planet was clearer out here away from the city and the reactors. And with clarity came nerves and fears. No faint voice like in the past, where her Mother continued to talk to her after she entered Mom’s house.

The Temple of the Ancients lead to the real change in her sensitivity to the Planet’s sensations. Each time she was close to Sephiroth a flight impulse rose within her. Need to get away, stay away. She fought back, fought alongside the rest of her friends. Each encounter with the strange man was absurd, improbable, impossible.

But they had happened. 

And the temple changed everything. When she stepped foot onto the old rope bridge, a more intense sensation ensnared her.

Not unfamiliar; this feeling had come before.

Once.

Five years ago, this sense of panic, fear, desperation to move, to reach somewhere had come unbidden in the middle of the night. Something called and she responded almost without thought. Enough coherency and control to dress at least. But once she opened her front door – it vanished.

Hard not to draw a parallel to another event five years prior. The same date on near the other side of the world. The same time Sephiroth breached the inner chamber of the Mount Nibel Mako reactor. The Planet had feared sufficiently to try and drag her somewhere. But whatever the Planet wanted had resolved or ceased. Whatever was the missing part of Cloud’s story might explain why the Planet let go of her.

Maybe.

Was it to the Temple she would have gone? To obtain the Black Materia before Sephiroth could? How different was it to her mother's materia - unmistakably white. Still in her care after all these years, still inert and useless?

An opposite to the Black maybe? The Planet might be clear and unmistakable in her head, but nothing meant she could make sense of what it said. 

Said was possibly the wrong word. No coherent speech or voice to communicate with. More sensations, fragments of knowledge she was certain she had not known before.

She could try focusing again. Try and-

“You okay?”

Aeris blinked, head dizzy, the world so small, constrained and narrow abruptly. She was-

Sitting in a stone hallway. The Temple of the Ancients – not its real name. Her tongue struggled to sound out the syllables of the place’s real name. A long lost language and she could not remotely make an attempt to mimic the sounds. Cloud crouched beside her. “I’m- I’m fine.”

He did not look convinced. A few more breaths, the dizziness fading. The stone beneath her, the cool air of the temple, the distant vibrations of unknown mechanisms and magic at work elsewhere. The murmured conversations of the rest of Avalanche, most thankful to be in these more confined areas after the vertigo-inducing, illogical maze upon entering the temple proper. “You don’t need to push yourself.”

Almost amusing. Hard not to give into what felt like duty. The Planet did not convey such a notion, but from what her Mother used to say hard not to think along those lines. She was the last of the Cetra and keeping the Planet safe was her duty. The whole of the Planet relying on one small human. Half-human.

Was she so different to the others? No Mako in her blood as Cloud. No remote operator as with Cait Sith. No- What was Nanaki’s species called? No demonic possession as Vincent. And no mechanical enhancements as Barret had. Cid and Tifa were asurredly mundane by contrast.

Aeris might be able to hear the Planet, but so could Bugenhagen with a bit of work. Was a Cetra anything more? Perhaps; the Planet was not spurring any of them onto a further goal. Did not rely on them to carry out its whim’s. And certainly was not in a habit of interrupting their sleep to drag them here. No. Not here. Somewhere else?

Cloud was still staring at her. What had he-? Oh. “I- I know. But it's hard to rest. No way to blot it out of anything.” She tapped her head.

“And here I was going to offer a head massage?” Cloud grinned.

“Is that a- You know how to?”

He scratched his head. “Well. Not entirely, but I figured it wouldn’t be too hard to figure out.” He pulled at his glove; Aeris put her hand on his arm.

“It’s fine. Thank you for the offer, but I’m not sure that would help.” Her shoulders were stiff. “Maybe a massage after this is done would be nice though.” Once they had the Black Materia. What after? Materia was hard to break. Toss it deep into the ocean maybe? Put it on Cid’s rocket and shoot it into space? “Think you can stretch to platonic massage?”

Cloud nodded. “I remember what they did in the Honeybee Inn, so-” He cut off, his cheeks reddening.

“Oh, my. Now that sounds like an interesting story.” She fidgeted to face him, her grin widening as the redness deepened.

“It’s nothing-” He coughed. “And-” He coughed again. “Forget it.”

“Oh, no. Now I’m curious. What did you want to ask?” She leant forward. Cloud squirmed.

“Well.” He glanced around; no one nearby. “Does it have to be entirely platonic? The- The massage?”

Oh. _Oh_. Too much to get into now, but- “We’ll see.” She smiled. “Play your cards right and- We’ll see.”

Cloud nodded. Another hasty glance around. “Think we should see about moving on.”

Aeris nodded. Curious. Something to look forward to when this was over. See how Cloud did in a more intimate setting. Find out how to get on the airship and Junon – or another airship (was there another?) - and sail through the wide open blue sky.


End file.
